Speaking on the occasion, Dikshit said the recognition was reflection of Delhi's leadership role in taking pioneering initiatives to comply with eco-friendly norms that would encourage other states in the country go "greener way".

"The need of the hour is to focus on promoting eco- friendly initiatives like ensuring energy efficiency and water recycling," Dikshit said. She congratulated the entire team of CPWD for constructing and designing Thyagaraj Stadium as a "green stadium".

Lauding the efforts of CII-IGBC in spearheading the green building movement in the country, Dikshit said Delhi government would be keen to work more closely with it in taking forward more such initiatives.

"It is a great honour for the city government which constructed a wonderful stadium based on green building concept with unique architecture," she said.

Spread over an area of 16,000 square metres, the Thyagaraj Stadium near INA market in South Delhi was built with green building technologies and eco-friendly material.

The stadium was equipped with a gas panel for energy supply. Currently solar energy is being used for lighting purposes. The stadium features effective water management systems such as rainwater harvesting and sewage treatment with two lakh litres a day capacity.

The multi-purpose air conditioned Indoor stadium has a seating capacity of 5,823. The stadium was built at a cost of Rs 297 crore.

Chairman of IGBC Prem C Jain said 2,159 green building projects totalling over 1.52 billion sq ft of green building footprint are registered with CII-IGBC, making India one of the top three countries with largest green building footprint in the world.

Speaking on the occasion, Director General of CII Chandrajit Banerjee said constructing of green buildings today are technically feasible and economically viable.